Missouri: Not as Dismally Horrible, Economically Speaking

The Missouri Department of Economic Development is out with its new jobs report. After a nine-month uptick in Missouri's unemployment rate, it actually went down in April. Plus, it's still below the national average.

KAMIKAZE SHOTS ALL AROUND!

But keep in mind: this doesn't mean people are still losing jobs. They are. In fact, over 9,000 non-farm jobs were lost across the state in April, including almost 4,000 in St. Louis.

What it does mean is that things have gone from horrible to slightly less horrible. It's worth noting, as the DED does, that April is traditionally a month when unemployment is low. But the drop from an 8.7 unemployment rate in March to 8.1 last month is still significant, because all rates are seasonally-adjusted.

Some industries actually added jobs over and above what was seasonally expected -- like the public sector. The DED says there were more than 1,100 new jobs in the federal government in April compared to March. The state attributes this increase to a batch of new hires helping out with the U.S. census.

So that's great. This way, our proud nation will be able to more accurately count the number of miserably idle people.